This site is going offline. My hosting provider raised the monthly rate from $7.99 a month to $13.99 a month. I will consider bringing it back online and hosting it from home, but for now, PaulandEmily.com is going offline – that includes the Gallery pages as well. I have everything downloaded and backed up, but who knows when I will have time to restore it all to a new server. The gallery especially is really old software so getting it to run on a modern operating system may not be feasible or doable.
So probably sometime in august 2018, this site will “go dark”.
-pc

We had some snow this weekend and the kids got to go sledding. Lillian LOVES to throw “snowballs” at anyone around her – so watching! She won’t sneak up on you though, because she loves to yell “IIIIII got you!” before she attacks.

We went sledding in the front yard too!

And made snow angels!
(Sean made one too, but wouldn’t stand for a photo)

I had planned on writing a long blog post about Christmas and all the other fun things that went on in December, but I lost my mojo on it. It was a special Christmas – Sean came down form St. Paul and my mom and sister were able to come in from St. Louis. This was the first time I’ve seen Megan since last Christmas! I can’t tell you when the last time that happened! Unfortunately, the weather was predicted to get bad so they were not able to stay as long as they hoped.
Oh, we also had an extra house guest this time – and I don’t think Uncle Sean will be able to visit without her, or face the wrath of my kids – he brought his cat, Pinky:
Megan go to spend time with her first neice, megabyte:
And her Niece 2.0:
Uncle Sean got plenty of time with the kids (to the point where I think he was just about ready to go back to St. Louis and St. Paul maybe even a little early – potty training time with Lillian can over power the weak!):
Lillian even shared her new princess hat with me:
But probably only because she got this really cool winter hat that she loves to wear:

So for Thanksgiving this year, we did something that Emily has never done in her whole life – we went to her dad and Colleen’s house in NY. Normally we bounce between St. Louis at my Mom’s and staying in Cinci with family coming into town. It was a long long trip, but quite fun! The weather held out until the very last day. We took a few pics, although we should have taken more (Emily’s dad took some so we will get a copy of those):
We left the Tuesday night before Thanksgiving and stayed in a hotel north of Erie, PA. It was Lillian’s first time staying in a hotel and she was NOT interested in going to sleep..at 1145pm. I rocked her until around 130am and she finally went to sleep.

We did the usual camp stuff – walked in the woods, road the four wheelers, etc. We got to visit with Emily’s Uncle Bob (a car enthusiast – Audi TT RS, so I got some car talk in) and Aunt Sue. Thanksgiving was delicious – stuffing with sausage in it? YUM! While we were up there, My good friend from college, Adam B. and his wife Kim drove up to visit friday – saturday. Haven’t seem him in years and it was our first time meeting Kim.

I also tried a local vodka made in Lake Placid, NY by Lake Placid Spirits called P3. This is bar-none the smoothest vodka I have ever had. So much so that when I poured it in a glass over ice, Emily actually asked me if I had watered it down! The final filtration process uses garnet! they have another vodka called 46 peaks that is filtered over diamonds. Only problem – its ONLY sold in New York!

Big thanks to my mom for lending us the Orange Honda Element for the trip!!

I flew to Minneapolis/St. Paul for my birthday this year to spend with Sean. Again, didn’t take many photos, but there will be other opportunities. We hung around his apartment a lot (because I had to work 🙁 )but we got out to the Mall of America, Best Buy Corp offices, I at a Juicy Lucy called Spanish Fly (Yum!), went to the mill district and took some photos, and we had our Birthday dinner at Manny’s Chophouse (where the maitre’d called Sean … my …”partner”. what? business partner right? hmmm). I made a small album of the photos taken. Most are from the mill district that has some “ruins” from the original mill infrastructure from the late 1800’s/ early 1900’s. Photos are not in any order because we took some with my cell phone using both normal and HDR mode; and others with my camera (well, Sean took most of those). Gallery:

We are doing Christmas in Cinci this year and I think My mom, Megan (and matt?), and Sean are coming down for that. I don’t think I have seen Megan and Matt since Christmas last year! Crazy! Will get pics up when that rolls around.

I know I know – Emily and I have been poor fan club managers of the Lily and Sean Fan Club. I am back in the office full time now and since Emily has me out of her hair during the day, she finally got to edit some pictures 🙂
Lily is doing very well – she was back to her birth weight within 5 days or so of being home. She is doing well with her feedings (every 3 hours or so) and sleeping. Emily is gracious enough to let me sleep most of the night, only requiring me to bear hug Lily once in a while (she passes out when I hold her).
A big thank you to my sister, Megan for knitting some of the cutest booties and little hat for Lily (Emily calls her Lily Bug so it s a perfect match!):

The rest of the photos can be viewed in the Gallery
Thanksgiving is coming up and Megan and Mom are coming down for that. They are going to head back to STL on Friday and then Emily’s dad and step-mom are coming down on Saturday for a longish weekend. Ought to be a lot of fun and plenty of photo-ops! And then shortly after that…I’ll turn the big 3-5! EEP!!

Finally got home early afternoon today. I’m sure we have lots of posts to make and photos and videos to process and put online – but for now we are just settling in and getting situated. Sean was VERY sweet to Lily ( “Lily Sister” ) and Megabyte was happy to see us.
My main reason for posting this is to thank my mom. She came down late Saturday with the intentions of helping us clean the house to get it ready for Lily and spending Halloween with Sean. Sunday mom worked her tail off in the house while emily tended to sean and helped her out where a 9 month preggo woman could help 🙂 I worked in the garage with on on-site mechanic trying to get the montero up and running (it RUNS… still needs work and an exhaust).
Monday I had to work and emily had off so she and mom hung out. While at Olive Garden, Emily started to have strong, quick contractions and sent me a text to let me know to keep my afternoon open. She had a 330pm appt with her OB for her weekly checkup. By the time she saw him at 4, she was ready to go. I got the call and drove in. We were in our room by 4:30. At 9:29 her doc showed up with his game face on and let us know it was time to start pushing. By 9:39, Lillian was with us!
I think we got to bed around 2:30am that night after getting settled in and Skyping with some family and friends.
My main reason for writing this post is to thank my mom. She came down for a quick weekend visit and ended up taking care of Sean and our house for the time we were in the hospital. Was totally not a part of the plan and it made our lives SO much easier. It was also a special time for her – she was able bring Emily to the hospital and get her admitted, and spend time with her until I got there. After the birth, Brian stayed at our house so mom and Diana could come and visit our 1 hour old baby. We also found out that we wouldn’t be released until Wednesday. Mom’s boss let her stay an extra day and she again took care of our house and Sean for another day – a treat for both of them I’m sure!
We were very blessed and thankful to have Lillian come at a time when mom just happened to be around and be available.
Thank you mom – we love you!

We walked down the street tonight to get our pumpkins. Sean picked out both his and Lily’s pumpkins. When we got home, we made a giant pile of leaves and Sean jumped in them and ran through them. He had a great time!! Click on the picture to see our fall cutie!

Today Mom, Megan, and Matt had to put our faithful friend, Baxter “The Wonder Mutt” down to rest. He’s been sick for a long time (although he NEVER showed it) and last night he finally wasn’t himself. Mom took him to the ER and they did a scan and found a large mass in his stomach/intestines. They all got to say their good bye’s and he went very peacefully. Going to miss the “I bark at anything that walks by the window” voice of his.

My sister put this on facebook, and I think it sums things up better:

Today, 10/07/10, it is with heavy hearts and tear-filled eyes that we bid my dearest friend and most beloved four-legged companion, Baxter the Wunder Mutt, a fond farewell. This amazing creature entered my life at a time when we were both vulnerable and needing some extra nurturing. He was a few weeks old and had been found on the side of a highway w/a severely infected back leg and I was 15, nuff said. His unconditional love was one of the things, aside from my family, that’s got me through the roughest years. Then he was there every minute of my Dad’s battle, and loss to, pancreatic cancer. He once again stepped up and helped us heal after my grandmother died a few months later. Baxter was a devoted and intuitive creature. The kind that, if we are so lucky, we encounter once in our lifetime. You will be missed my dear friend. Thank you for gracing my life with 13 years of love and snuggles. See you on the other side, Baby Boy. I love you, always and forever.

Em and I were talking the other night and we realized we never made an official announcement about the name of baby 2.0. (or is it 1.6 since we have three months to go?).
We toyed about it for a very long time – wanting to have a first name from one side of the family and a middle name from the other. We did easily agree on the last name, however.
So – we decided on Lillian Catherine. Lillian is from my side of the family (I think from my dads?) and Catherine is Emily’s sister.